INTERNSHIP IN CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK

We offer two MSW intern positions on the Clinical Case Management Program with possible rotations on the Adult Service, Chemical Dependency Services, and the Adult Intensive Outpatient Program.

THE SETTING

The East Bay AreaKaiser Permanente's East Bay Area includes its flagship Oakland and Richmond medical centers, which first took care of Richmond shipyard workers during World War II, then opened to the public in 1945. Today the East Bay Area encompasses 11 cities and municipalities within Alameda County and the western part of Contra Costa County. About 900 physicians and 5,500 employees serve 315,000 members in the East Bay Area. Hospitals, medical office buildings, and pharmacies are located in the East Bay Medical Centers (including medical offices in Alameda and Pinole). The city of Richmond has 103,000 residents and Kaiser Permanente is one of the city's largest employers.

Patient PopulationThe patient population consists of Kaiser Health Plan members who have prepaid psychiatric benefits and covers a broad ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic spectrum. All age groups and virtually all psychiatric diagnosis categories are represented. The Clinical Case Management Program serves patients with severe and persistent mental illnesses with a history of psychiatric hospitalizations and current psychosocial stressors including poverty, tenuous family relationships, substance use, and adjustment to new psychiatric diagnoses.

The StaffThe Kaiser Richmond Department of Psychiatry is large, consisting of 15 Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), 18 Psychologists (PhD and PsyD), 2 Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), 9 Psychiatrists (MD), and 1 Art Therapist. In addition to the 2 pre-MSW interns, there are typically 8 psychology practicum students and 2 psychology postdoctoral residents in the department.

ServicesThe Department of Psychiatry provides individual and group treatments to adults, children and families. There are specialties in depression, anxiety, trauma, personality disorders and psychological testing (adult and pediatric). There are also a variety of psycho-educational programs including Anxiety, Depression, Mindfulness and Insomnia classes available through the Health Education Department. There is an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) designed to address the needs of high acuity psychiatric patients, for adults and adolescents. The Department also offers an intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Program aimed at reducing high risk behaviors and increasing the quality of life for patients with Personality Disorders. The Department offers bilingual services to Spanish-speaking Kaiser members as well as provides translators in multiple languages.

THE TRAINING PROGRAM

General PrinciplesThe training philosophy is steeped in the tradition of clinical social work and utilizes the Biopsychosocialspiritual Model in assessing and treating the patients. Interns are exposed to a unique and diverse community with complex demands. There is a clear emphasis on the role of the clinical social worker in a multi-disciplinary setting serving a multicultural community in an outpatient setting. Interns will work with individual patients in addition to co-facilitating therapy groups. This is a demanding and challenging placement that emphasizes clinical training in a supportive and structured environment.

The internship consists of three components:

Regular exposure to clinical work through active participation in all facets of outpatient services, including collaboration with clinic staff, co-facilitating groups and treating individual patients.

Professional guidance through sessions of formal individual supervision, process recordings, group supervision, and informal clinical consultations with other clinical staff.

Regular weekly 1.5 Hour training seminars.

SupervisionInterns receive at least one (1) hour of regularly scheduled weekly individual supervision. In addition, they are supervised on cases in weekly group supervision with other interns and psychology practicum students. Selection of cases and size of caseload is carefully adjusted to the intern's readiness and training needs as determined by the training supervisor. Regular process recordings are expected, once the interns begin seeing patients.

EvaluationsThe primary supervisors are responsible for completing the interns’ evaluations. There are two evaluations completed during the year; one at mid-year and one at the end of the year. An effort is made to provide ongoing feedback. Interns have an opportunity to evaluate the Kaiser-Northern California Training program/staff twice a year.

GrievancesIt is the goal of the Social Work Internship Programs to provide learning environments that foster congenial professional interactions among training faculty and interns that are based on mutual respect. However, it is possible that situations will arise that prompt interns to file grievances.

The Regional Policy and Procedure manual provides a full description of grievance procedures. This manual is available on the Social Work Internship Programs main web page.

Prerequisite CoursesAll interns must have prior training in the following areas:

Mental Status Evaluation

Mandated Reporting (CPS, APS, etc.)

Suicide/Homicide/Danger Assessment (Tarasoff, etc.)

Ethics (i.e. confidentiality, professional boundaries, etc.)

Psychopathology/Abnormal Psychology

Theories and Practices of Psychotherapy

Personality and Psychological Development

Domestic Violence

Chemical Dependency

The intern and his/her training director will insure that these competencies are met before the intern begins seeing patients.